In this country, the Second Amendment was framed as (and currently remains) an insurance policy against such tyranny, and while I hope I never live to see such a thing in my own life, I leave these examples as a reminder for those who think gun control is necessary of the things that can happen when a disarmed population faces the tyranny of a gun grabbing government.

The Krakow ghetto: The liquidation of 55,000 people

The liquidation of the Krakow ghetto at the hands of the dreaded German SS was one of the most shocking events in the 20th century and likely one of the most haunting for

Marching Jews out of the Krakow ghetto. Those who left, rarely survived.

Westerners particularly. Today, the few who survived Hitler’s Holocaust routinely remind us of how it was an unarmed populace that fell victim to Nazi tyranny (like this compelling story from Austrian survivor Kitty Werthmann).

When Germany invaded Poland there were nearly 70,000 Jews in Krakow. Only 15,000 of these Jews were allowed to remain (because they were “workers”). The rest were moved out of the city to other areas while those remaining were crammed into an area designed for one fifth of their number. Conditions were cramped to say the least with many families forced to survive on the streets — so walls were built to surround the ghetto and with four guarded entrances.

On May 30, 1942 the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto began — the process of shipping out all the town’s Jews and other enemies of the state to various concentration camps. More than 7,000 were shipped out in the first wave and then 4,000 in the next, all destined to be killed at or en route to Belzec. On March 13, 1943 the final liquidation began on the order of the ruthless Amon Goth. Around 8,000 remaining Krakow Jews and other ‘undesirables’ were shipped to a Plaszow labor camp while another 2,000 were killed in the streets and apartments of the city. Goth shipped any left off to Auschwitz.

You can see this struggle depicted in the movie Schindler’s List in detail, and of the 70,000 Jews, Oskar Schindler was only able to save about 1,200 people. I think the film should be required viewing for any adult or mature child who values freedom.

Today we can wonder what would have came of the Jews in Krakow had they kept their weapons. In the famous Warsaw Ghetto uprising around 220 Jewish and Gentile resistance fighters were able to repel the first wave of German invaders, much to Nazi Jürgen Stroop’s surprise.

“When we invaded the Ghetto for the first time, the Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars, by a well-prepared concentration of fire.” — Jürgen Stroop, high-ranking Nazi and SS official

This victory would be short lived for the resistance fighters. The Warsaw Jews had been subject to the same disarmament as the Krakow Jews and, even with significantly more cached weapons and a slight tactical advantage over their attackers, they were incredibly out gunned against the Axis. One of the last remaining survivors, Marek Edelman, who was interviewed in 1986, reported that each individual fighter only had a handgun, some grenades and homemade Molotov cocktails while there were only three rifles, two landmines and a single submachine gun in the entire ghetto. Handmade weapons, created in hopes of rounding out their arsenal, were also used, but many reportedly jammed.

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre: 1,000 dead in 6-minutes

While a public school education ensures that what was done to the Jews during World War II is well known, an earlier event a half a world away rarely gets mentioned here in the United States, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

After World War I, the British colony of India was in political turmoil with the United Kingdom’s grasp on the Jewel in her crown loosening and Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent revolution gaining momentum all across the country. However, the roots of India’s gun control goes back to the middle of the 19th century after the Mutiny of 1857.

Having almost lost the country to this rebellion, the British colonial government put together the Indian Arms Act 1878 to ensure such an uprising could never take place again. This act prohibited Indians from possessing a weapon of any kind unless the British masters considered him a “loyal” subject of the British Empire. It conveniently exempted Europeans from these restrictions and its enactment coincided with a nationwide confiscation push that also saw the destruction of most of India’s local firearm and weapon production facilities. Many of these restrictions remain in place in India to this day.

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Leading one to wonder whether Gandi’s non-violent revolution was purely by choice or necessity.

General Reginald Dyer.

On April 13, 1919 a crowd of at least 20,000 unarmed Indian protesters gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh public garden. To address this crowd, British Brig. Gen. Reginald Dyer and about 150 soldiers took position above the gardens toward the narrow entrance point of the garden.

Convinced that an uprising was taking place (despite the fact that women and children were present) ordered his men to open fire on the crowd without warning. In about six minutes some 1,650 rounds of .303 British were expended at the thickest part of the crowd, killing about 1,000 men and injuring an additional 1,500. Dyer had two armored cars equipped with Vickers machine guns but he could not get them through the narrow entrance. The shooting lasted a total of nearly 10 minutes and Dyer only quit when he ran low on ammunition.

Others died in the stampede of protestors trying to flee the massacre while others fell

This well, where fleeing Indian protesters desperately sought refuge from a barrage of British bullets, is known today in India as Martyr’s Well.

to their death as they tried to find cover from the bullets down the garden’s only well. Many of the wounded were left to die there because Dyer immediately ordered a curfew, meaning the injured could not be rescued from the garden until the next day. Can you imagine having your loved ones on the street dying and some evil man with a gun telling you can’t go aid them? The thought chills me to the bone.

Dyer was relieved of command after this incident and forced to retire. It’s important to note though, that no matter how obviously vile his actions were to India’s populace and even to the local British colonial government, folks in high places back in Great Britain actually lauded his actions and he incurred no stiffer penalties. In the end the massacre helped Gandhi gain more support for independence, but it was a high cost. Over 1,000 peaceful Indian citizens died because one side had arms and the other did not.

Conclusion

China, Cambodia, Guatemala — there are many instances in recent history where systematically unarmed people were eradicated at the hands of a tyrannical government. These histories should be required reading in our schools as each one serves as a reminder that in a world of sheep there are wolves and whereas sheepdogs can be protectors, sometimes they end up reverting back to their primal nature and preying upon us. While this has never happened here and again I would hope it never does, it goes to show what can happen when an unarmed population fall victim to those who have guns at their disposal.

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Our government has abused our own citizens. The Civil War (sic); the incarceration of Japanese Americans; how about the fact that the average worker works until MAY!! for the state until he can start working for his own life and needs.

It most certainly has happened in America, perhaps the "Indian Wars" should also be required reading? Turn over your arms, stay where we tell you to stay, learn what we tell you to learn, speak the language we tell you to speak, practice the religion we tell you to, sound familiar? My ancestors were forced to WALK from West Virginia in the dead of winter to Oklahoma, all of their homes and belongings illegally taken from them, with only the clothes on their backs because they prospered, much to the horror of the American Government. Many died on that walk, hence, THE TRAIL OF TEARS. The massacre at Wounded Knee simply because the UNARMED savages were gathering for a RELIGIOUS ceremony, clearly they were a threat, right? The numerous women and children of the Lakota and Cheyenne that were slaughtered at Sand Creek? The Apache that were hunted like feral animals in the desert South West? Our entire identity was stripped from us when they FORCED our ancestors into "reservations", entire languages and cultures lost for eternity thanks to the American Government. It has happened here and it will happen again, as long as the American people are either denied or choose to forget our very own past! They will have to pry my guns out of my cold dead hands, I will NOT submit or trust this government, I most certainly have learned the lesson taught to my people!

While this has never happened here.... Really? did you bury your memory at Wounded Knee as well? Governments CANNOT be trusted. Ever. Much is made about democracy, and how "we the people" run things. But allow me to point out to you that of the major belligerents in WWII, only ONE (Soviet Russia) was a true dictatorship. Japan, United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany all had elected leaders. And other than warring on each other in that massive disaster, each country had a long history of abusing their own peoples and peoples in their colonies.

You forgot about Waco, Texas. That happened late in the last century, right here on American soil. They were not formaly disarmed, but were massively outgunned to the point they may well have been. Look at what is happening in Mexico, a disarmed nation in theory, yet the war between the drug cartels and military/police has killed more citizens than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Many AMericans have also fallen victim to their bullets, both in Mexico and here. So, there are situatioins other than direct government tyranny that warrant civilian possession of arms for defense. The Los Angeles riots after the Rodney King trial are another example... wherein the Korean families in the area were lawfully armed with AR 15's and AK 47's. As the mobs approached their homes and businesses (having already burned some fifteen hundred other buildings, usually after looting them of anything of value and killing some) the armed Koreans began firing upon them... when they ceased their advance and withdrew, to leave them alone. Police had decided not to venture into the area, in fear of their own lives (hirelings, all, not committed to "keeping the peace", they turned tail and ran away, leaving the locals to their own devices.. good job the Korean families had some ":devices" and "know very well what they are about" with them.
No, disarming any people, for any reason, is wrong. Our Constitution declares the right to arms is from God, and pre-exists the document. It further declares the right shall NOT be infringed.